Directed by Germaine Dulac • 1923 • France
Starring Germaine Dermoz, Madeleine Guitty, Jean d'Yd
Considered one of Germaine Dulac’s most feminist films, THE SMILING MADAME BEUDET is also a crucial step in her continuing de-emphasis of traditional narrative structures in favor of visual association. This impressionist film offers a bleak portrait of marriage and the constraints it places on a woman, while vividly externalizing Dulac’s dreams of liberation.
Up Next in Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology
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The Peasant Women of Ryazan
Directed by Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Ivan Pravov • 1927 • Soviet Union
Starring Kuzma Yastrebitsky, Olga Narbekova, Yelena MaksimovaReturning to a pre–Russian Revolution mode of narrative storytelling, this melodrama focuses on two peasant women—one the victim to an abusive father-in-law and t...
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The Erl King
Directed by Marie-Louise Iribe • 1931 • France
Starring Mary Costes, Joë Hamman, Otto GebührThis early sound drama was Iribe’s second directorial effort and uses cinematic techniques to visualize Goethe’s 1782 ballad “Erlkönig” and Schubert’s later musical adaptation. Produced by Iribe’s Les Ar...
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The Woman Condemned
Directed by Dorothy Davenport • 1934 • United States
Starring Claudia Dell, Lola Lane, Richard HemingwayWhen a radio star (Lola Lane) is murdered, a mysterious young woman (Claudia Dell) is accused of the crime. Can a wisecracking reporter (Richard Hemingway), who finds himself captivated by th...
